Uninvited
by FangirlsDontDoTheCalmThing
Summary: ** set after Murder House, is a continuation with loose changes made** Ben Harmon leaves his brother Brian and his 'niece' Audrey the papers to Murder House to sell. But when Brian decides to move in, mostly to figure out what caused his brother Ben's suicide and what's going on in the house, and resident ghost sets sights on Audrey, are the living residents really uninvited?
1. Strangers In The House

CHAPTER ONE

_Strangers In The House_

"Just so you know, Dad.. This place? A total terd." Audrey muttered as she set hr sights on the house that her father, through some mysterious part of the family that he never spoke of, had inherited. She eyed the dilapidated mansion with slight disdain over the rims of dark tinted wayfarer sunglasses as she drew a heavy breath and popped a noisy bubble with her spearmint flavored chewing gum.

Her father, Brian, turned to her and said quietly, "A terd it is, Audrey.. But now it's our terd. Look, we both needed this new start.. And your uncle Ben.. He left it to me."

"Because, dad, the guy was an ass who rarely even acknowledged he actually had a brother. Didn't you tell me he made your life hell when you were kids, he always ignored you in front of his friends, pretended to be better than he actually was?" Audrey rattled off, know it all she was known for being. She finished seconds later by adding, "And he specifically said, in his letter, that he wanted you to sell the damn place, daddy.. Not live in it. Mom would flip in her grave if she knew we were even living here."

Brian sighed as he thought to himself, _'She would. But she'd also tell me this was Ben's way of making up for how he treated me in life, trying to take care of us in death. He did reach out. I was stupid, had to hurt him like he hurt me when we were kids and he left me with our mother, went off to do whatever it was that he did. There's a lot in play here, Audrey, my darling daughter, and if you knew the half of it.. You'd probably hate me and your mother just like Ben came to.'_

Of course, Audrey didn't actually know that she was Ben's daughter too, and the house was probably for her, not for Brian. Brian didn't want his daughter looking at him like he was pathetic for what he'd done, marrying her mother, raising her as his own.

And by the time they'd been prepared to actually tell Audrey the truth, Ben and his whole family died mysteriously.. while living in this house. Sure, they'd had logical reasons for death, Violet with an od, Vivian with a problematic birth, and Ben a suicide as a result of all he'd lost since he'd come to live in Murder House convinced that he was doing the right thing for his family, but..

Still all suspicious. Brian knew his brother, Ben wouldn't just kill himself like that. Not without something really, really heavy weighing on his conscience. It had to be more than the past nobody knew about but Brian, Ben and Lillian, Brian was fairly certain of that. It had to be huge.

Brian wanted to find out what happened to them, they'd seemed like the picture perfect family from the one or two letters Ben sent that he'd bothered reading and not throwing into the garbage.

They'd been just about to sit down and tell Audrey and Violet the truth.

That they weren't cousins, but half sisters instead.

Audrey would've liked to have a little sister, she'd always complained when she was younger about not having a baby brother or sister. Neither Brian nor her mother, Lillian, had the heart to tell her than she actually did have a baby sister.

That Ben had run out on Lillian, he'd been younger, just about to start his practice and it'd been a fling. He'd freaked out and left.

Then about two years later, he'd met Vivian and within a year, they were married. And not too long after, came another daughter.

That, in truth, was why Brian couldn't stomach being a part of his brother's life. Because Ben had taken Lillian from him that summer, and he still hated his brother for it.

And time hadn't changed that.

It'd dulled it, but never had it changed it. The rift between the brothers had widened that summer, and now..

Brian didn't know what his brother might have been involved in to cause his entire life to unravel as he'd heard it had in the months before his death.

But he knew that whatever had done it, it'd started in this damn house.

So for nothing more than closure, for Audrey's sake mostly, he was going to find out what happened here.

"Earth to Daddy.." Audrey said as she looked at her father, biting her lower lip. Something about this place terrified her and she hadn't even ventured inside it yet.

They'd only just gotten out of the car, her father was digging around for the front door key when the woman spoke up and said "It's probably hidden in that flower pot's tray." which of course made her father turn and raise a brow. The woman introduced herself and said "Constance Langdon.. Who might ya'll be?"

"Brian Harmon. Ben's brother? He probably didn't talk about me much."

"He did, actually. Said he regretted some things he did." Constance admitted as she studied the man, asked in curiousity, "There's no Mrs?"

"My mom's dead.. Died last year.. Drunk driving accident." Audrey said quietly as she looked at the blonde woman who said with a sympathetic (and also decidedly fake) look in her eyes, "You poor thing."

Audrey fell silent and then said "So this place.. Why isn't it like, condemned?" blunt and brutal teenage honesty showing in her eyes and in the tone of her voice. Constance glared a moment, angry that she'd suggest Murder House be torn down, that she lose the only family ties she had left. Then she softened her look and shrugged, said with a false briight smile to Brian, "If y'all need anything." and cocking her head to the bungalow across the street, finished "My place is right over there."

"We'll keep that in mind." Audrey said with a slightly irritated and bold wariness creeping into her voice as she did so. When the woman had walked off, she looked at her father and said with a roll of her eyes, "Yeah, daddy.. Go right ahead."

"What?"

"I saw you lookin."

"I was not looking, Audrey Nicole."

"She was pretty.. Fake as hell, but pretty. Looks don't last." Audrey remarked as her father retorted with a smirk much like that of his late older brothers, and his daughter's own smirk, "Says the girl who takes at least an hour and a half in the shower."

She shrugged and said calmly, "Cause, daddy.. I'm getting clean." as her father unlocked the door and stepped into the house.

Audrey followed suit, and unknown to her, she was observed from the top of the stairs by a fascinated and unseen guest in the form of 17 year old Tate Langdon. "Who the hell is she?" he grumbled as he thought immediately of all the ways his privacy and his sanctuary would undoubtedly be completely and totally ruined.

"Apparently, Tate, we're getting new residents." Moira remarked, not liking the look in the young male's eyes as he fixed them on the teenage girl downstairs.

"They never stay long. And if they die here, they cross over and leave." Tate scowled as he remarked. The girl started up the stairs, her hips swaying, her blueish gray eyes searching the dimly lit hallway. Just to be an asshole, and to prove his point about them, he moved so that he stood behind her while she was standing and looking at one of the closed doors warily, her hand hovering hesitantly over the knob.

He slid his finger slowly along the warm soft flesh that was her cheek and whispered with a smirk, "Boo."

Audrey stiffened and her hand went to her cheek. But when she heard a disembodied voice say Boo in her ear, she took off down the stairs at a run. Tate laughed to himself and shrugged, content.

Until she came back up a few minutes later, determined look in her eye and what appeared to be a pocketknife and a flashlight in her hand. "Who the hell's up here? If you're a hobo, get the fuck out. Place is inhabited now. Hit the road Jack. Or my daddy's gonna find his 30 alt 6 and you're gonna be missing half your skull." she had the nerve to say as she shined the flashlight around the room twice right into Tate's eyes where he stood unseen just out of her line of vision, in a closet in the hallway.

"Mouthy." he muttered to himself as he grumbled when she pushed open the door to his room. And then disappeared inside.

"Hell no."

"It's not yours anymore, Tate." Moira reminded him, with a gleeful smirk as he glared at her and walked through the wall and into the room. He chose for now not to make himself known. He'd made himself known to Violet entirely too soon and she'd left him the second she got a good chance to do it.

She'd let her idiot father take her to a hospital, crossed over when the doctors couldn't resuscitate her.

Then her idiot father offfed himself in a rented office he'd gotten across town when he and Vivian were considering splitting up. Vivian died in labor and with her, both the kids, one of which he'd promised to Nora.. He hadn't been able to deliver on that, of course, because Vivian crossed over too.

Took the kids with her.

And it hurt like hell, even though that scared him to admit. He'd actually thought for a little while there.. If he could've shown Violet he wasn't a total monster -which he knew he was, his mother and what he'd done proclaimed that above all else- they could've taken the kids and raised them.

They could've been a family and nobody would've had to know anything. Life was simpler in that respect when you weren't among the living.

The door to his bathroom opened and the girl walked out in a pale pink nightie that stopped about mid thigh with her cell phone glued to her ear arguing animatedly with whoever was on the other end of the line as she flopped onto the mattresses on the floor that the movers had bought up earlier today, he assumed they had to be hers.

Hiding in his old closet, he could see her, he could hear her, hell with the ac going now like it was, he could catch the slightest scent of her vanilla scented perfume or whatever the hell it was every now and then. She looked up, looked right at him a few times, scowled as if she thought she saw something and then looked down again, shaking her head.

Most of his other posters came down but the Nirvana one stayed. So did another one, just of Kurt Cobain. He could hear her music from a distance, it sounded like she was listening to In Bloom, humming along as she painted her nails this flourescent pink color while flopped on the mattresses.

"She can't be all bad, I mean she listens to Nirvana." Tate mumbled then instantly scowled in disgust. These people were **intruding** on his safe haven. And he was not about to fall for another one like he had Violet. He wasn't the same cold and heartless bastard as he had been before Violet came along, but he wasn't about to go getting his heart ripped out again either.

_'She needs someone, Tate. Someone real. Not you. You shouldn't even be spying on her, you know. It's wrong. This is how it started with me, isn't it?'_ he heard her, Violet, the source of all of his pain and angst, taunting him in his mind. He covered his ears and screamed to Violet to shut up, to leave him be, she'd left him once, he didn't want or need her now.

He heard her sad sigh, felt the cool sensation of her lips against his cheek. _Do not make yourself seen to my sister. And if you do happen to ignore me, which I know you probably will.. Don't tell her that she's my sister. She doesn't know, dad said it was for the best, he was messed up then and so was Audrey's mom. My uncle brian was devestated when he found out what her mother had done with my father back then.'_

"Trusting me with secrets now?"

_'Just telling you about her. So you don't go snooping and get seen by her. So you don't fall for her and hurt her when she finds out just how far you'll go for those you love. It's not that you're a bad guy, Tate.. You just do fucked up things with good intentions. And it's not right or fair to the people you hurt.'_

And like that, Violet's presence was gone. And again his world was dark, dreary. But then it always had been that, hadn't it? Dark, dreary, he felt condemned. And now that he'd known the lighter side, that he'd had a taste of the love long denied to him.. He wanted more. He craved it, the way loving someone made him feel. He just didn't want the pain and suffering that usually came with it.

He peered out of the closet, watched the girl who inhabited his room now putting her own things into place, making the room more hers and less his.

This only pissed him off so he vanished down to his basement safe haven and ranted, raved to Nora about their intruders.

And he saw the light in her eyes again and grumbled when she casually mentioned his promise.. How she expected it to happen this time, how she wanted to be a mother. How she'd be a good mother and she'd never forget what Tate had done for her, how Tate owed her that because she alone had saved him from the hell he lived in as a child, and from an almost certain death at the hands of her monster son Thaddeus.

In anger he snapped "So? Pretend to be alive, make the guy fall for you and have a kid. Leave me the hell out of it. I don't care anymore. Caring only hurts."

She looked at him in a hurt way and he stormed out. To hell with it all, he just wanted the peace and quiet back. He didn't want another family in the house, he didn't want to feel this peculiar bond towards the teenage daughter, he didn't want to feel drawn to her.

He just wanted to feel numb.


	2. Something Strange is Happening Here

CHAPTER TWO

_Something Strange Is Happening Here  
_

A week was ample enough time for Audrey to realize that the house they'd been given was.. It was creepy as hell, especially at night or when she was home alone, which was often, -not that she wasn't used to that- and an unannounced guest came by. Things also moved from one place to another, the biggest of those seemed to be anything that belonged to her.

She dug around her vanity table frantically, swearing as she did so. Not even 5 seconds ago, she'd put her keys and cell phone down on it and now, of course, she'd turned her back and they were gone. Which wasn't good considering that she had to go to look at her new school today and her father was meeting her there. In fact, her father was probably already there waiting on her. "Damn it." she swore as she got down on her knees and pulled the zebra print coverlet up, shined a small flashlight underneath the bed.

The box caught her eye and she lowered to her stomach, slid halfway underneath the bed, pulled out the box and looked at it. It had Violet's name on it, which made Audrey raise her brow. She knew -or at least she was 99 percent certain- that Violet's room had been down the hall when Violet lived here with Ben and Vivian her aunt and uncle. "I'll look at it later." she muttered as she shoved the box into a shopping bag near the vanity's legs and looked again under the bed for her keys and cell phone.

Not seeing them under the bed she stood and looked around in her bathroom, then every other part of the bedroom she'd been in that morning since she'd woken up and found that her dad was gone for the day already. She'd just finished retracing her footsteps when she happened to look at the vanity table and saw not only her keys and cell phone sitting on top of it, but wild flowers tied with one of her own hair ribbons that she'd been missing for a few days now. She recognized the wild flowers as ones she'd seen growing along the edges of the woods at the back of the property, near a crude stone that had something illegible carved in it's surface, and around Constance Langdon's house, which she knew from Constance, that she'd been the one who planted the flowers.

The woman hadn't ever said why, or what the stone symbolized, but she'd been in a really big hurry to leave after Audrey asked her about it, just wanting to know the names of the flowers because they were pretty with their shades of pink and purple, deep dark blue.

Audrey rubbed her arms and looked around her room with a raised brow. She knew fully well that her keys nor her phone and the flowers had been on the table seconds before.. So how the hell had they gotten there?

Sick of the games she said aloud in her shakiest voice, "W-whoever you are. This isn't fucking funny. My dad will kill you. I will call the police." as she felt warm air breeze across her bare neck, could've sworn she heard a male voice whispering with a slightly cold and bitter laughing and almost taunting tone to it, _'Go ahead, Audrey, call them. They'll just think you're crazy. So will your father. Because you're the only one who can hear me.. And Audrey? I'm going to keep it that way. There's something about you.'_

She needed no coersion to run down the stairs as fast as her feet would carry her and she'd just thrown the door open when she smashed into Constance, the neighbor they'd met the night they moved in, a neighbor who creeped Audrey out with the way she just let herself into the house as if she owned the place. "Are you okay, girl?"

She smoothed her hands down over her ripped dark denim leggings as she straightened herself out, rerolling the sleeves of her blazer jacket and said quietly, almost a little too calmly, though the hunted look in her gray eyes gave it way for Constance to see the truth, "Oh, I'm just fucking awesome. This portal to hell's up to it's old tricks again. My father's not here and I'm leaving."

"He's left already?" Constance asked as she peered over Audrey's shoulder and into the house, seeing Tate calmly walk by, smug grin on his face. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Tate was up to no good again. She looked at Audrey and said calmly, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Like I said, Ms. Langdon.. I'm fucking awesome. Today's just a normal day, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this fucking hell hole of a house that my uncle gave my dad, probably out of spite. I'm not lonely and I'm not scared and jumpy every time a breeze comes through." Audrey snapped through gritted teeth as Constance eyed her with a raised brow. She'd only thought Violet was tightly wound.

If this girl didn't watch it, she was going to snap and explode one day. And it wasn't going to be pretty. Might even be worse for everyone than Violet's taking her own life had. She laughed dryly and then said in a calm and deliberate tone, "Relax, girl. Ghosts don't exist."

_'You're a fucking nutjob who sneaks into our house uninvited, unannounced and you don't believe in ghosts? They do exist.. That or I have a stalker. I'd believe in the possibility of ghosts before I would some person being so obsessed with me, wanting me and my worthlessness so badly that they were breaking in here and playing head games.. Unless... I wonder where you were about fifteen minutes ago, Ms. Langdon?' _Audrey thought to herself as she struggled to calm down. "If you'll excuse me, Ms. Langdon.. I'm late for a meeting."

"What 17 year old kid has a meeting?"

"Apparently, Ms. Langdon, this one does. I'm going to look around campus at the high school I'm enrolled in."

"Ahh, Westfield, right?"

"Mhmm. And if you'll excuse me, my dad's already been there about, " she said as she consulted a black leather wrist watch, then continued "fifteen minutes." before shutting -and of course locking- the door to the house behind her and getting into the Eclipse she drove, another one of her father's "I'm Sorry I'm Never Around, but I do Love You and hey.. I got you a nice convertible" gifts.

All she ever seemed to get, she mused, were gifts and excuses. Or in the case of her mother, the lowest self esteem a teenage girl could possibly have without just slicing her wrists open and dying to end it all. Her mother, for whatever reason, hadn't ever tried to be a mother to her. In fact, she seemed repulsed to have to spend any time with her.

Add that in with a drinking problem and the habit she had of popping Valiums like Skittles, and a father who threw himself into work just so he wouldn't have to come home and deal with her or fight with her and Audrey was surprised that she hadn't at least attempted killing herself at least one time yet. Statistically, the odds were all in the favor of that very thing.

But despite her flaws, despite her insecurities, Audrey hadn't done or tried to do that yet. But if this house kept pushing her..

She shook her head and laughed bitterly at herself as she drove towards the school and then reminded herself aloud that ghosts didn't exist. That there had to be some other and more rational explanation for what was happening in that hell hole of a house.

And why was it focused on her?

Her father, for the most part, when he bothered to be home with her, was left largely unaffected except for one visit from a badly burned man who claimed that since Ben died before he paid him off, now her father had to honor the debt and pay him off.

What was so special about worthless little Audrey, she wondered, that had whoever this was focusing on her as if they were trying to run her out of the house. What was she missing?


	3. Unseen Visitor

CHAPTER THREE

UNSEEN VISITOR

The sound of a hard rock song drew him to the room he used to call his own and he watched her again, -as had become his habit over the course of the three weeks or so that she'd been inhabiting his room-, watched her staring at herself in that damn full length mirror as if she were scrutinizing herself and disliking what she saw in the reflection.

This, of course, made him fascinated. He couldn't help but sit and watch her and then he heard her laughing bitterly and saying that she was too god damn fat, her nose was too big, she had a flat chest, she had disgustingly gray eyes and that her mother was right.. She'd never be pretty, nobody was ever going to want someone like her, not as a model or dancer, not as a lover or wife. And she damn sure wasn't intelligent like her father, at least according to her dear and darling recently deceased mother..

Audrey bit her lower lip as her father's voice cut through her usual session of disgust at herself. She sighed and called out impatiently, "Coming daddy." as she stared in the mirror a few moments more and wondered aloud "How is it that I look like neither of them? That I didn't inherit genes from either of my parents?" before giving a long dark strand of hair a twist around her index finger, biting her full and dark pink lower lip for a few moments, as if puzzling that out.

The older she got, she realized with a frightening clarity, she resembled neither of her parents. In personality or looks. And as a result, she felt like an outsider.

She slid on her pale purple cashmere cardigan over a white shirt with the Eiffel Tower screen printed on it in black and a black long sleeve shirt beneath that, and then she walked down the stairs.

At the foot of the stairs a woman with flaming red hair and one bad eye stood, taking stock of her, of the house around her. Brian smiled at his daughter and said aloud, "This is Moira. She worked for your uncle and his family when he lived here.. And she wants to work for us too. This house is too big for you to clean on your own, Audrey."

"It is, daddy, but I don't mind.. Really." Audrey managed as she managed a small tight smile in Moira's direction. Something about the woman had the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck standing up. Something about the woman scared Audrey shitless.

Moira smiled and said in her warmest tones, "If you like, Audrey, you can help me.. I am getting older." so Audrey wouldn't feel left out.

Or alone, since Moira had just learned from Brian that Brian fully intended on reopening his brother's home office and taking all of his old patients back, if they'd go to him. He was a therapist, and he prided himself on being a caring and concerned one at that.

He had no idea what the hell he was getting into, Moira thought to herself upon hearing, but her main concern was the teenage girl in the house. She'd stood back and let the previous girl suffer in silence. She intended to be hands on this time, to help the girl, try to save her life if she could.

This house had taken more than it's share of souls.

And the girl wasn't perfect, but she still had a long life ahead of her. It'd be a shame to see that end like Violet's had.

"S..Sure.. I mean if you really want me to." Audrey said quietly, warily almost. Her gaze shifted from her father to their new maid and she bit her lower lip as she wondered what neither of them was saying to her, why this felt more like Moira was being hired to 'babysit' her or something.

"I've decided I want to open your uncle's private practice and take his old clients if they still want a therapist." her father said as Audrey sighed then said through gritted teeth, "Oh."

Before her mother died, her father had thrown himself into work to keep from having to deal with her mother's problems. Then he threw himself into a bottle after her mother's death. She'd did the best she could to take care of her father but he seemed to distance himself from her.

Her mother had a long time ago when she realized just how much of a 'failure' Audrey was going to be at dancing or modeling, or anything for that matter. She could never do anything good enough for her mother and she'd finally given up on trying in the months before her mom's death.

Now she was going to lose her father too, apparently, to his work.

Moira sensed something underlying in the way the girl answered her father's announcement, she felt the tension so thick a knife could cut it in the room but she refrained from comment. She got the feeling that Audrey spent a good 90 percent of her time feeling like she was unwanted. Like she wasn't good enough.

Like Moira had felt at that age. And Moira trembled to think at how she'd dealt with her overwhelming sense of inadequacy, the depression and bitterness. She'd turned it on other people. That's how she'd wound up here, among the non living part of Murder House.

If only someone had cared.

Well, it wasn't too late for this girl.

And Moira was going to make it her mission to show the girl that.

Audrey looked at her father a few moments and then asked quietly, "I thought you were just going to teach at that junior college?"

"I am.. But I'll do this too."

"You won't ever be home." Audrey said in a flat tone as she started to turn and run up the stairs, hurt and bitter. She needed him, damn it.

Why was it never about what she needed or wanted, but about what the adults in her life wanted instead? Was she really that horrible a person?

Her mother's voice echoed in her mind, and she winced as she heard her laughing that bitter drunken laugh and saying calmly, _'You're never gonna do anything right are you, girl? You're too stupid to go on to be a doctor or a lawyer and too damn ugly to be a model or a dancer like I was gonna be until I got pregnant with you. You'll be a nothing, a nobody. You're never gonna be good enough.'_

She stood in front of the mirror with her hands on her ears stupidly as she tried to remind herself that it wasn't real that her mother had been sick, her mother had had several big problems and that her father was doing this to take care of them both.

He wasn't escaping her..

Was he?

A knock on the door had her turning around. She opened the door and Moira said with a smile, "I'll be back tomorrow around 12. If you want, you can help me. Every family I've worked for is different in how they like their house kept. As lady of the house, I'd like you to show me what you want done."

Audrey looked at her blankly then realized that the woman was being serious. She nodded solemnly then said "Thanks.. I'll try not to be in your way."

"Nonsense.. If you want to help, I'd like that. Your aunt Vivian.. She used to help me sometimes, with the laundry. Said she'd be bored if she sat there with nothing to do, nothing to occupy her time." Moira said as Audry answered quietly, "What were they like? I never.. I never actually got to meet my aunt and cousin. For some reason my father and my uncle hated each other and my mother never wanted me around Violet."

Moira went back to a conversation she'd had with Violet one day and pieces began to fall into place as to why Audrey might not know her aunt or cousin and barely knew her uncle Ben.

Sh e sighed and thought to herself _'You poor dear.. Now a lot of things your uncle said when he was drinking and angry make sense.. Now what Violet said makes sense.'_

"Ahh. Well, I'm sure they'd have loved to have gotten to know you." Moira said to comfort the girl mostly. Audrey shrugged and then said quietly, "Depends.." as she worked on putting away her clothing, unpacking the remainder of her things.

"I'll be going now.. But I meant it, Audrey.. If you want to talk or if you just want to help me around here, feel free to do so." Moira said as she made herself leave the girls room though she was loathe to do so because she knew that Tate was hidden in there somewhere, out of the girls sight waiting to either scare the poor girl or just watching her.

The door shut and Audrey let out a few breaths as she flopped back onto the bed and picked up a book she'd been reading the night before after switching on her docked Iphone, slipping in her earbuds. She dozed off and during her impromptu nap she could almost swear she felt someone sit down on her bed, then she felt the covers being slipped up over her.

She'd been too groggy from her nap to open her eyes and see who it might have been but she figured that it was probably just her father trying to make up for upsetting her earlier. She felt bad enough that she'd behaved like a princess or at the very least a selfish brat, but she was upset all the same...

When was she going to be **allowed** to need someone?

More importantly, when was someone actually going to be there for her, when she needed them with no judgements and harsh words to her about how pathetic and worthless she was?

As she slept, Tate sat at the foot of the bed watching her, curiously, trying to figure her out. She acted happy, or she'd seemed to for the two weeks or so she and her father had been living in the house now, but he could see it in her eyes earlier, when she was looking in the mirror. Deep down, she wasn't happy and she hadn't been happy for a long time.

That alone had him thinking that maybe it was for the best that he didn't show himself to her.. Because if she had problems already, then he'd only worsen them. And she'd leave him alone too. That maybe he should just keep taunting her with taking her things and moving them, leaving the wildflowers she seemed to like so much and leave it at that. Maybe Violet was right to warn him against trying to reach out and try again to recapture the love Violet had made him feel for her.

Still, he couldn't shake the urge to show himself to her somehow, if for nothing more than to tell her she wasn't all those things she said she was.

That Violet would've been upset to hear her say those things, that she had actually upset Violet, who'd heard her earlier when she'd been lurking around the house, taunting him with her freedom to come and go from Murder House, reminding him how fucked up he was, telling him over and over that he'd only do something he thought was a good thing and wind up hurting Audrey. At least that's what his bitter mind kept telling him Violet was doing when she'd show up at Murder House and sneak around watching her uncle and Audrey. He didn't think she was doing it for any other reason, why would she be? She wanted to hurt him like he'd hurt her. That was just how he'd always rationalized things, that much about him remained the same at least.

He was torn between being angry with himself for wanting to know Audrey and the guilt he felt.. Because he'd promised Violet that he'd never give up.

But in the three weeks Audrey and her father had been living here, he'd been unable to fight the pull to Audrey he felt. If he didn't do something soon, he'd go insane.

It probably wasn't a good idea, but he'd decided. He wanted her. And one way or another, he'd have her to himself. At least for a little while if things did go straight to hell as they tended to where he was concerned.

He slid out the wildflowers and stuck them on top of her vanity table, picking up a bottle of perfume, smelling it before he made himself leave the room and go back to his basement. He didn't like Audrey being here, she made him feel things again. Things he didn't want to feel because he'd felt them before and he knew how crazy they made him. He knew how far he'd go to make her happy.

Just as he had for Violet in his own messed up way.

Audrey rolled over and for a split second, she could've sworn she saw a male about her age with gorgeous brown eyes, shaggy blond hair and baggy shirt and jeans standing over her bed. When she sat up, prepared to scream out, he was gone. But another small gathering of the wildflowers, along with another of her stolen items, a necklace this time, that was wrapped around the flowers stems, sat on her vanity table.

"What the hell just happened?" she mumbled groggily as she began to dismiss it all as some bizarre dream she'd been having during her nap. Because that's all it had to be, right?


	4. Glimpses

CHAPTER FOUR

GLIMPSES

She whirled around to face the doorway behind her in the kitchen, hand in her thick black hair as she waited. She could've sworn that again for the third time in a day, probably the thousandth this week since the night she'd seen a glimpse of the guy in her dreams, or at least that's what she called him, she'd seen him moving around the house out of the corner of her eye.

"Maybe dad's home earliier. It'd surprise and shock me." she muttered as she stole down the hallway quietly, peeked into the home office space her father spent an almost alarming amount of time in, mostly looking through paperwork, it was almost like he wanted to find something or he was actually looking for something in that room, Audrey had yet to figure it out. "Dad?"

No answer. But she felt something cold and icy trail slowly across her exposed lower back. She sucked in a breath and whirled around, called out into the empty hallway she stood in "This isn't funny, damn it. I know someone's sneaking in this house and screwing around with my head. Whoever's there, show yourself. I mean it, show yourself or I'll..."

_'You'll what? Scream? Cry? Piss yourself in fear. I told you already, Audrey.. There's noone here. Or at least that's what everyone thinks or what they will think when you start talking about what happens to you here.' _ the voice that'd become all too familiar to her by now said in her ear from behind. She jumped forward a little and turned, found nothing standing there. But a door down the hall was swinging as if someone had just walked into it and in a hurry.

She raised a brow but mentally, she reminded herself that her 'disembodied male voice' did have a good point. She was already a bother enough, this was made obvious with just how little her father was actually home with her, telling anyone what happened while she was here alone would not only make her worthless and pathetic, but it'd make her crazy too.

She remembered the pasta and marinara she'd put on to boil and bolted back down the hall and into the kitchen, stirring the pot, her shoulders stiffening as she heard Constance, the neighbor with the creepy stalking problem, speaking from the patio doorway. "Smells good." the blonde female mused as she slunk in and sat down at the table, cigarettes and a lighter in hand.

Audrey nodded a little, turned back to her food as she said "My father isn't home."

"Pity. What if I didn't come here to see your daddy?" Constance asked as Audrey turned to look at her and then said quietly, "Why would you wanna see me?" with a confused look. Constance thought about what her friend the psychic had told her earlier and then said quietly, "Just figured you'd be lonely over here, that's all."

"You said you lived here before.. Did anything weird happen to you when you were alone here? Like I'm constantly finding things that go missing of mine.. And the flowers.. And a few times, I thought.. Nevermind." Audrey said, mentally kicking herself for blurting it out after she'd strictly promised herself she wasn't going to do that.

To anyone.

Because she didn't want to see them look at her with pity or something. And she didn't want anyone thinking any worse than they already did about her to be quite honest.

"Weird?" Constance asked, brow raised in curiousity as she lit a cigarette, took a long and dainty drag and then asked "Do you smoke, girl?"

"Not often." Audrey said calmly as she looked at the woman and said in a quiet voice "Just forget I said anything, okay? It's probably just my imagination. I just thought that I saw.."

"Yes?"

"Look, it's nothing. Overactive imagination." Audrey said as she thought about the small glimpse she'd gotten a few nights ago of the boy with the solemn golden brown eyes and shaggy thick blond hair as he stood over her bed during the night. She thought of how she hadn't actually **felt** threatened. If he were going to do something, he'd have done it a thousand times over already, she'd been here, she'd been living in Murder House a little over a month by now, she wasn't an idiot.

"You sure?" Constance eyed the girl who currently sat staring at the doorway, this faraway look in her eyes. "Give me a cigarette." Audrey muttered seconds later as Constance laughed a little and then said with a mischevious smirk "I knew it. Knew ya smoked at least a little. Seems like girls your age all have some kinda habit."

"That's my only one." Audrey said firmly as she added "And I only do it every now and then, not often." but took the lit cigarette and took a long slow pull from it, exhaled quietly as she turned her gaze to Constance and asked again, "Why did you come by? I can't be that interesting."

"Actually, you caught me.. I did wanna talk to your daddy, Audrey. Wanted to see about putting my son into therapy with him. He was so close to a breakthrough when your uncle had him in his therapy sessions... Now he's having setback after setback." Constance said as she watched the girls face for a moment. The curiousity was in the girls eyes gave her away and with a smug grin Constance said casually, "He's about your age.. Right now he's away. But I wanted to start his therapy sessions again just as soon as he's home and your daddy gives the okay. I understand he's takin your uncle's old patients?"

Audrey nodded and bit her thumbnail before standing and going to the stove to stir the pasta and marinara sauce. She bit her lower lip and then started to ask Constance what her son's name was, but when she'd turned around again, Constance was gone, the door to the patio was shut. "That woman freaks me the hell out. She sneaks in here like she owns the place. It's weird." Audrey mused aloud as she stirred the marinara sauce into the noodles. She gasped as the lid of the pot, for a split second, in it's spot on the counter, showed her another glimpse of the same boy she'd seen a few nights ago.

She started to speak but no words would come. And when she could finally work her mouth properly again, he was gone. She took a test bite of the food she'd cooked and put the lid back on, forcing herself to push out the glimpses she'd seen and all the other weird things that happened to her and her alone out of her mind, walking out of the kitchen and into the den.

When she'd walked into the den, Tate stepped out of the pantry and lifted the lid of the pot on the stove as quietly as he could. He used the lid to fan the savory scent of the food in the pot to his nose. One thing he did hate about being among the non living was that he couldn't eat now. "Not bad." he muttered as he carefully put the lid back into place and set off for his basement sanctuary again, wondering what his mother was up to this time. She'd done all that earlier for a reason.

Why was she still intent on putting him into therapy? He knew the truth now, he knew everything he'd done, he knew he was a monster. He knew everything he touched turned to shit sooner or later.. she hadn't cared in life, why care about him now in death? And he didn't need therapy, he thought to himself. He just needed to be able to go back to the numbness and not giving a shit he'd felt before he ever knew Violet. She'd started all this.. Now it looked like Audrey was going to finish him off.

He just wanted things back the way they were before when he didn't know what he'd done, he didn't know what love and loving someone felt like, when he didn't give a damn about anyone.

But it looked like that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.


	5. First Impressions

CHAPTER FIVE

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

"So, guess who's getting his first in home client today?" Audrey's father asked as the two of them sat around the table eating a breakfast of omelettes, bacon, biscuits and gravy that apparently their new maid Moira threw together for them before leaving that morning after she'd finished cleaning the rooms in the house that needed cleaning for the weekend. Audrey looked up at her father from picking at her omelette and asked quietly, "You?" as he nodded and said "The woman across the street. She said her son was in therapy with Ben before.. And she'd like to continue that. We won't even talk about what she's paying me."

Audrey studied her father, only half of what he was saying actually registering in her mind. She was too busy trying to mull over just what the hell she'd been dreaming about the night before, and who the guy she kept seeing in her peripheral vision around the house was. Why someone kept leaving her the wildflowers she'd admitted to Constance that she'd liked.

Why her things came up missing only to be returned -with above mentioned flowers- later on in the week. She'd actually been trying to do a little digging around about the house's past and so far, she'd come up with several gruesome and interesting stories from old newspapers at the local library, but nothing about the guy she only caught occasional glimpses of in the corner of her eye.

She was starting to wonder, and only partially jokingly, if she were being romanced by a ghost. As she thought this particular sentiment while picking at her breakfast and half pretending to listen to her father's rambling on and on about work, about how this was a much needed new start for both of them, about how this is what his brother would've wanted them to do, she felt a cold shiver up and down her back.

"Are you okay, Audrey?"

"Fine, daddy. Just sleepy is all." Audrey said quietly, shoveling some of the food into her mouth, gasping a little as she saw again, out of the corner of her eye, that same guy she'd been seeing. She covered the gasp and made it seem as if she'd yawned quickly before her father noticed, but her father spoke up and said aloud "You must be Tate Langdon. You're a little earlier than I'd expected, your mother lead me to believe that you wouldn't be around until well into the afternoon."

The boy stepped into the dining room and looked at Audrey curiously, an almost defiant smirk on his face as the color drained from hers. He was enjoying this! Damn him to hell! She glared at him, not amused as she forcefully speared a bite and shoveled it into her mouth then stood abruptly and said to her father "I'm not actually that hungry, daddy. Gonna go up to my room so I'll be out of your way. I'd imagine you're gonna need privacy." before cutting her eyes to the other male and glaring a moment, shoving past him in the doorway.

Which, of course, only made him smirk all that much more. She stopped in the doorway as he called out casually, "Nice to meet you too, Audrey." just to further grate her nerves. She turned and held his gaze as she said " So you know my name.. Big deal." before walking up the stairs, closing the door to her bedroom and falling across the bed, her mind (and heart) racing.

"How the fuck did he know my name?" she wondered aloud as she reminded herself _'Constance is his mother. She probably told him, you know how she is. But still, why in the fuck is he leaving me flowers, sneaking into my room and moving my shit around? At night most of the time, at that?' _which were currently the two bigger things that made her curious.

Downstairs, Brian sighed and shook his head. He looked at Tate and said quietly, "She's never been very good with other people." as Tate stared at the hallway stairwell and mused aloud "So I've noticed. She kinda acted like I scared her, Dr. Harmon."

"She spooks easily, her mother and I never actually had an easy marriage." Brian admitted as he motioned for Tate to follow him down the hall in the opposite direction and into the office that he'd taken over. He nodded to a seat and Tate flopped down carelessly, looked at the man and asked point blank, "If you're Ben's brother.. Why didn't he have any pictures of you guys?"

Brian gave him a stiff look and said through gritted teeth, "You're the patient, Tate. I'm the doctor. We're here to help you, my own life is beyond help at this point I'd think. So.. Your mother tells me you have several issues that you were working on with my brother before? I'd like to pick up at your last breakthrough.. When you realized that everything you'd done was wrong. How did you feel then?"

Tate mulled it over and took a pen from the desk, twisting it and turning it between his fingers as he went back to the night he and Ben had the argument they'd had, mostly about everything he'd done. Of course, he couldn't tell this guy the entire truth, so he shrugged and said "Angry.. Because I just.. I felt like what I did was for good reasons, ya know?"

Brian nodded. Something told him this kid was holding back a lot, but he didn't comment, instead, he noted what Tate's reaction to the question was, and moved on to another topic. Tate explained to him the 'nightmares' he'd been having lately, and then he admitted (with his best faked sheepish look) "I saw Audrey.. The day you guys moved in.. Now I dream about her too."

Brian gave him a warning look and coughed then said firmly, "If this is a diversonary topic, I'm not going to fall for it. My brother's notes on you, Tate Langdon, were cryptic and vague, but surprisingly thorough. He seemed to indicate that you got joy in doing this kind of stuff. Pushing buttons. Why do you think you do that?"

Tate shrugged and said with a slightly innocent but cocky smirk, "If I didn't Dr. Harmon.. Who would? Nobody's honest anymore. Everybody lies. Everybody leaves." Brian wrote this revelation down in the notes he had already on Tate and looked up at the clock. In his mind, he could for whatever reason hear his brother's warning, _'Keep that fucking kid away from her.. I lost one of my girls already, Brian.. It's on you to make sure I don't lose another. I swear to Christ, Brian, if you don't start paying attention to the little things? You're gonna have the worst rude awakening ever.'_

And like all the previous times since moving into Murder House that he'd sworn he heard Ben talking to him, he again ignored Ben. Ben hadn't given a shit about Audrey, about what happened after the things Ben and his own damn wife had one back then, why the hell should Ben be manifesting himself into Brian's subconscious now?

Tate eyed Brian and then shrugged and muttered "Whatever." as the doctor continued to jot down his notes. Tate used the time to let his eyes dart around the room. It seemed warmer than when Violet's father had been the one who owned the office. There were pictures of Audrey and Brian Harmon everywhere. None of the wife, however, which made Tate wonder what the story was there?

He kept quiet for now though. No sense in making Brian Harmon hate him with the passion to put out the sun if it set the earth on fire in one day. He knew now that making the man hate him was not the right (or the easiest way) to getting to know Audrey, which was really what Tate wanted. Even if he hated himself for it and he'd die a thousand slow deaths before admitting it.

Some old rock, Bryan Adams, filtered through the ceiling and Tate watched as Brian looked up, sighed and then got back to the therapy session at hand. "Maybe she's gonna be okay." Brian muttered as Tate raised a brow and pretended not to hear, or care that he'd heard.

The session came to an end and Brian got a call to drive to the campus he also taught abnormal psych on around the same time. This couldn't have made Tate any happier. But he was careful to hide it from the doctor, of course as he left the room and pretended to walk out.

When Audrey's father was gone, he turned back and walked up the stairs, stood in the doorway and watched her doing something that looked like yoga. He cleared his throat and she turned around, a fiery anger in those soft grayish blue eyes of hers. "What do you want?" she asked in a slightly icy tone as he stepped into the room, shut the door quietly behind him and raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"For?"

"If I scared you." Tate said as he looked at her, bit his lower lip and held her gaze then continued, "I know you know it's me.. That's been leaving the flowers and coming in here. I wasn't doing it to scare you."

"Sure you weren't." Audrey said as Tate leaned in closer and said with a smirk and a slightly bitter laugh, "If I wanted you scared, Audrey.. We both know I'd have done it already. Relax. I heard you say you liked the flowers, I saw how sad you looked.."

"I'm not sad." Audrey insisted as she tried backing up, only to feel this odd surging of heat all over her body and wind up moving closer to him instead of farther away. She bit her lower lip and continued "You don't know me, Tate Langdon. I'm a lot of things.. Sad isn't one of them."

"So you cry at night for no reason, huh?" he asked, almost grinning when his words hit a mark and she winced, blinked at him in shock and then stammered "It's not any of.. It's not any of your business, Tate. You're the one who needs a shrink. Not me." she started as he happened to look down and see the old scar on her inner forearm. He grabbed her wrist and held it up then said quietly, "If you aren't sad then why do you need to do this? She used to do it too."

"Who? Violet? My cousin? Did you know her?" Audrey asked, the questions coming in a flood, the curiousity that nobody else seemed to want to satisfy about the family she'd never been allowed to know surfacing as she looked up at him. Tate nodded and said quietly, "Yeah, I did. You didn't?"

"No. My mother didn't let me anywhere near my uncle Ben and my father... He agreed with it. Hell, my mom railroaded him into everything, practically.. So Violet and I never really got to meet." Audrey explained quietly as she held his gaze and bit her lip when she brushed against his chest and realized just how close they stood now.

"Where is she?"

"Dead." Audrey admitted quietly as she looked up at Tate and then added " And don't apologize. For me to have been hurt, she'd have actually have had to act like a mother. She didn't. It's just better I don't talk about her, actually.." her voice trailing off as she took a few steps back, looked at him a few moments and then pointed out "My dad specifically said you're not allowed up in this area of the house. So you really need to go."

"But you don't want me to.. Do you?" Tate asked, his head tilted to one side as he smirked and studied her intently. Audrey looked at him a moment and shrugged, turned away from him, moving around the room, changing her Itunes playlist from one song to another, Blown Away by Carrie Underwood. She stood with her back to him for a moment, he lingered in the door way and then said casually, "You're really good at singing." She looked up at him and laughed and then said calmly, "Whatever you want with me.. I'm not worth it. So do yourself a favor and stop whatever this is your trying to do." before turning her back again and waiting to see him leave in the reflection of her mirror.

Instead, he walked over and stood behind her, said quietly, "Look.I'm not any happier about this than you. But every since I saw you when you guys moved in, Audrey.. I've wanted to get to know you."

She bit her lip and he said quietly, "And I'm not used to giving up when I want something." while holding her gaze. The tone of his voice, the way he looked at her, just the fact that he had been doing what he'd been doing for almost a month and a half now, unseen.. They all should've been factors that clearly told her to run like hell.

But for whatever reason, she just nodded instead. He left and she took a few deep breaths. If he'd been trying to make a bold first impression just now, Tate Langdon had done that very thing and then some.


	6. Behind Those Solemn And Haunted Eyes

CHAPTER SIX

_Behind Those Eyes_

His eyes were this haunting and almost golden shade of brown. He didn't realize it, but they were very expressive, even when they mostly remained solemn and somber, almost as if he didn't want to care or feel better. Audrey was haunted by those damn eyes and she was starting to get angry with herself for her awareness where Tate Langdon and his comings and goings in her father's house were concerned. She didn't want to be curious about him, she didn't like it when he popped up at random and just stood in the doorway, arms crossed, watching her with those damned solemn and hauntingly beautiful eyes of his.

But he refused to stop doing it, mostly in spite.

She looked up from brushing her hair, their eyes met in the reflection cast in her vanity mirror. She sat down her hairbrush and said impatiently, "My dad's not here.. And you don't have another session until Thursday. I know."

"So? Maybe I wanted to come by. I needed to talk to someone." Tate said quietly as he studied her and then asked aloud "Why do you hate me?"

"Why does it matter if I hate you or not?" Audrey asked him, answering a question with a question, a diversionary tactic that seemed to make him leave her alone quickly. Today, however, he looked more solemn and somber than normal.

Almost like he was hurting badly.

"It doesn't." Tate said calmly as he stepped into her room without asking her if it was okay to do so. He sat down on the edge of her bed, looked around at the way she'd decorated his old room and wondered what she'd think if he just said at random that he was a ghost, forced to spend eternity and beyond stuck in this damn house, that it was cursed.. And that he had these pesky feelings for her that just wouldn't go away already. That's all he wanted, was to not want her. He didn't want another situation like the one he'd been in with her half sister Violet. There was no substitute for Violet and despite all better judgment, he couldn't stop the way he felt about Audrey, nor could he help how it'd snuck up on him.

The old Metallica concert poster caught him off guard and he turned to her and said "Never would have pegged you for a Metallica fan."

"You hardly know me, Tate." Audrey stated as she turned to face him and said quietly, "Why do you keep doing it?"

"Doing what?"

"Popping up. Purposely trying to rattle me? What's your big plan, huh? Just keep at it until I'm fucking looney toons? Because if that's it, Tate.. Hate to tell you, I'm already crazy. You can't live in my family and not be crazy to some degree."

"Your dad seems like a nice guy though."

"He is.. To his students, to the patients he's taking in.. He's barely around. And when my mom was alive, he was always so stressed.. Look, I'm really not sure what you want with me. I'm not used to it, okay?"

"That makes two of us." Tate grumbled as the music playing quietly changed from some song he didn't care to know, to Ride the Lightning by Metallica. His eyes fixed on hers and he said calmly, "I want you."

"No, Tate, you don't." Audrey said calmly, as she looked at him and then added "Didn't you say you dated my cousin Violet?"

_'Actually, Audrey, she's your sister.. But hey, you have no idea, so..' _Tate thought to himself as he nodded and then said "If you're going to say it's because you're her cousin, that maybe you remind me of her, you actually don't." as he added mentally, _"Because, Audrey? Nobody will ever be Violet. But I can't have her.. And she didn't want me in the end. I want you.. And I want you to want me. And one way or another, that's gonna happen.' _and leaned back where he sat on the edge of her bed, resting the weight on the palm of his hands. He watched her moving around the room, obviously trying to ignore him, trying to make him leave by using the silent treatment.

It wasn't going to work.

Not this time.

It only made him angry. But he had to at least try to keep from losing his temper. He'd scare her if that happened. And as much as he hated it, he'd rather not scare her.

"Actually, I was going to say that maybe you're grieving her death in your own way. And for whatever crazy reason, that means you're fixated on me. Trust me, Tate, not worth the obsession. If you really knew me, you'd know that."

_'Thanks to my own mother, I'm **never** going to think I'm worth it. I'll probably never get past all the damage she did when she had her drunken fits and said all the shit she did to me when Dad wasn't home.' _Audrey said. Those damned beautiful and somber eyes of his fixed on hers and he asked quietly, "Why do you keep saying that? Just curious.. I mean it's not like I actually care."

"I say it, Tate, because after you hear it enough, you start to think it's true. In my case, I pretty much know it's true." Audrey said as she sighed and looked at him, arms crossed, careful to keep just out of his reach. The other day, when he'd touched her, something really, really weird had happened..

It was almost like for a split second, she knew what he felt, she knew why he was the way he was. That hadn't ever happened to her before and it made her really uncomfortable.

Which only added to the discomfort she felt around him to begin with. She was just too damn afraid she'd do something totally stupid and give in to these strange cravings she had where he was concerned. And she didn't want to get hurt. She didn't want to look at him one day and see that look of disgust on his face like she'd seen on her mother's, on several other's.

She knew that he'd just run too. Or find a way to hurt her. Everyone did.

Tate leaned in and then eyed her inner forearm, the fresh and angry red scar against creamy and smooth skin. It looked like a burn, not a cut. _'So she's not trying to kill herself like Violet did. But she's purposely hurting herself. And even though I don't wanna.. It hurts me to see it.' _he thought to himself as he looked at her and asked quietly "What happened there?"

Audrey paled and then stammered a moment, putting her arm out of his view as she said stiffly, "Not your business, okay?"

"Looks like you burned your arm." Tate quipped as he leaned in and said quietly, "Was it an accident? Because I bet it wasn't, Audrey. And I gotta wonder.. What makes a girl burn herself on purpose? Because that's not the first time I've seen your arms, seen the scars."

She glared at him defiantly as she pointed to the door and then said aloud, " If I did it on purpose, Tate.. Wouldn't be standing here right now." as he turned to look at her, a strange look in those eyes of his as he walked back into the room and shut the door quietly behind him.

"You'd never go through with it, Audrey. You don't have the guts." Tate said with a smirk as Audrey rolled her eyes and then turned up her radio, Disturbed soon drowned out their conversation. "You said you wanted somebody to talk to. So talk, since it's obvious you're not going to leave. Whatever you say will not be reported back to my daddy, won't be written down in some notepad."

He eyed her, brow raised and then sat down warily.

"It is grief.. I mean I don't wanna feel it..." Tate said after looking at his hands, playing the 'victim' as he did in therapy sessions with Audrey's father a lot of the time. Girls were suckers for that shit.

And he had a feeling that Audrey might finally be letting him just a little closer.

About damn time, really. She'd been living here almost 4 months now and she'd managed to resist this long. Tate was known for his persistance, however, so he'd been determined to keep trying until she caved in or the truth about him came out.

"About Violet?"

"And other things.. Things I did.."

"What things?" Audrey asked as Tate looked up and said with a tight smirk and through grittted teeth, "None of your damn business. You won't tell me anything, why the hell should I trust you, huh?"

"Fine, don't tell me. But the other day when you grabbed my hand.." Audrey started then muttered "Forget it. I just thought there was some weird connection there. Obviously I was wrong."

_So she had felt it.. Interesting_, he thought to himself as he recalled every painful thing he'd seen and felt about her own private life.

It'd happened with Violet too and she'd gotten angry when he'd tried to tell her. Of course, he'd tried to tell her this right after the truth about him, about everything he'd ever done came out and she'd been too disgusted to even look at him. And he'd thought that when it happened between them, it meant something, it meant that even Fate thought she belonged with him. The fact that it happened again, with Audrey, who couldn't hate him more if she tried (or at least that's what it seemed like to him) made him wonder if Fate was just a comedy mastermind and liked yanking his chain any time it got the chance.

"You weren't. Kind of how I guessed you did that to yourself, on purpose." Tate finally said as he looked at her. She glared a moment, the sleeve of her blazer was tugged down over her forearm and she muttered something he couldn't make out.

"Look.. Everybody does bad things. I'm no saint, okay?" Audrey stated as she leaned back on her bed, stretched out and faced him.

"Never said you were."

"Good. Just so you know, I'm not some fucking innocent. I felt like I needed to suffer, so I did. Back to you now.. Why are you doing all this shit to me? Is it some kind of sick game?" Audrey asked as Bon Jovi's Bed of Roses came on, Tate looking at her with a raised brow for a moment, shaking his head at her eclectic music tastes and then saying quietly, "Why does it bother you so much? Why do you have to have a damn answer?"

"Because, Tate, nobody's ever done that."

"Yeah? Well maybe it's because you're such a bitch most of the time." he blurted as she glared a moment and then shrugged, laughed a little."Good point.. But no, that's not why.. It's because everybody, but you, can clearly see what a fucking worthless loser I am."

He gaped at her a moment, his hand caught in his hair not sure how to respond to the blunt and brutal statement she'd just made. He knew girls had self esteem issues, that's how he'd even been lucky enough to get Violet for the little bit of time he'd had her, but..

The statement sounded like it was rehearsed. Like she'd heard someone repeating it over and over. He found himself wondering if it were her mother's voice she was hearing whenever she said something like that about herself.

And why her own mother apparently hated her so much.

And, of course, if Brian knew about it. The guy wasn't an asshole like his brother Ben had been. Sure he got angry with Tate during sessions, but he treated Tate at least partially decent. He didn't look at him with barely veiled disgust when Tate told him about his 'nightmares', or anything he wanted to do to hurt other people who hurt him or anyone he cared about.

Ben had, he realized this now. Ben never thought he'd be able to be a better person. He'd written Tate off the second Tate walked into his office for their first session.

Brian kept trying, he actually seemed to care. Which meant a lot to Tate, even if it was too late now and the damage had been done, his punishment had been dealt out.

"What?" Audrey asked as Tate looked at her a moment, the look in his eyes intense as he leaned in a little bit like he was going to kiss her. She flinched a little and he laughed, smoothed her hair behind her ear and said with a smirk "Relax. I wasn't gonna make you kiss me. I know you hate me. Can't blame you, really. I'm not a good guy."

"You're not an entirely bad one.. I mean everybody's got problems. Look at me. I'm an emotional basketcase."

"You're not worthless though. Pretty sure your dad would be hurt if he heard you saying that stuff. You're lucky. Your dad isn't a bastard. Mine was. He walked out. Everybody walks out."

Audrey sighed and then looked at him a moment, getting distracted, getting lost in his eyes. She was starting to see the pain deep down in them. It wasn't that he always had a sullen and solemn look.. It was that he always looked like he was in an ungodly amount of pain.

"It wasn't your fault though." Audrey spoke up quietly a few moments later as she stood and walked to her desk, rummaging through it. She came up with her sketch pad and flipped through it to the charcoal drawing she'd done of him from memory one night. "Here."

Tate unfolded the paper, looked up at her. "Did you do this?"

She nodded and said "Just take it." as she abruptly shoved the sketchpad out of sight, then locked the drawer she'd gotten it out of again with a small key. "You lock your desk drawer?"

"Yeah.. Because my dad's one of those 'concerned parents..' meaning if he suspects I'm doing even a little badly, a little less than okay, he comes through my room and looks at my stuff while I'm out. And I really don't want him finding out anything that might stress him out or upset him. God knows he had enough crap to deal with when my mom was alive." Audrey said calmly as she sat back down on the bed next to Tate.

Some kind of classical song, Summer Overture, she told him the name when he asked, and he looked at her with a raised brow.

She stretched and started doing what looked like contemporary ballet to the song while he wandered around her room, being nosy himself.

She'd let him in a little today, but he wanted to know everything. He'd only seen glimpses when they'd had their bizarre little connection a few days before.

He wanted to know what made those big and soft almost silvery gray eyes of hers so sad and solemn. Just like his eyes were.

She stopped doing the dance and said quietly, "I wanna do ballet.. But I'm not tall enough and I've got too much body , I might love dancing.. But loving it and being good at it are two entirely different things. And I'm horrible at it."

"You have no body fat. You could actually eat." Tate pointed out as he looked at her, moved closer to her, giving her a casual smirk as he looked at their reflections in the mirror.

"A ballerina's supposed to be tall and lean. And trust me, Tate.. I'm the most clumsy person I know." Audrey countered as she tried to laugh a little for his benefit but winced when she remembered just how angry her mother had gotten after seeing her in her old ballet class production of The Nutcracker. How her mother had sworn and yelled at her, pointed out all her mistakes while laughing.

And then she'd taken her out of ballet because she said if Audrey was that horrible, there was no sense in continuing to waste the money on her classes. Audrey had cried, of course, but she'd done as she was told and let her mother take her out of the classes.

The next day, of course, when her mother was sober again, she'd apologized and tried to make up for it by taking her shopping at the mall in their old hometown. But Audrey hadn't forgotten or gotten over what her mother said or did.. Any of the things she'd said or done, really.

She'd been an alcoholic, but she'd also managed to completely ruin Audrey's life in the process. And she fought with Audrey's father constantly, put him down, hurt him too.

But silently, both Audrey and her father tried to do whatever they could to deal with it.

Tate shrugged and then snickered when a really old song came on, a song by The Supremes. "Seriously? My mom likes this crap."

"Sometimes it's good."

"It's all shit. Nirvana is good music."

"Yeah, but.. Anything can be good music as long as it makes you feel something." Audrey pointed out as Tate moved to stand behind her where she stood in front of the double mirrors on the sliding closet doors. He smirked and she bit her lower lip as his hand rested lazily at her left hip.

But, he noticed, for the first time in the four months she'd been living here now, she didn't try and get as far away as possible.

Maybe he'd made some progress today when he'd come in here and opened up to her a little. Maybe now that she knew what he wanted, and that he intended to get it, things for him would go much smoother.

Moira calling out downstairs had Tate grumbling and making an excuse to get to the basement, for whatever reason, Moira had deemed herself sole guardian of Audrey and she hated Tate anywhere near the girl. Almost as much as Tate hated having feelings for Audrey.

"See you Thursday." he said with a cocky wink as he walked out of her bedroom and down the back staircase that lead to the basement area of the house and the rooms on the back side.

"Whatever." Audrey muttered as she started to work on straightening up her room so that it was one less room Moira had to worry about cleaning. She bit her lower lip as she thought back to her odd conversation with Tate just now.

Apparently, for whatever reason, he wasn't going to leave her alone.

And apparently, for whatever reason, she was shocked to find that maybe she was okay with that, even if only just a little bit.


	7. Not Quite Friends but Not Enemies

**: THE AUTHOR WOULD LOVE TO THANK ALL MY REVIEWERS! AND THOSE WHO ARE FAVORITING AND FOLLOWING THIS STORY. LOVE YOU ALL! YOU ROCK! :**

CHAPTER SEVEN

_Not Friends But Not Enemies Either_

"What do you want?" Audrey asked as Tate shrugged, slunk into her room and flopped down onto her bed. She gave him a dirty look and moved the pillow he'd knocked out of place back into place then continued to gather up her dirty clothes, preparing them for Moira to wash when she had to come into the house and clean again. By now, she was learning to tolerate Tate's little surprises and surprise visits. She thought them strange of course, and wondered why he was so fixated on her, why he always looked so solemn and sad, but she was starting to grow a tolerance to the strange teenage boy who frequented her room after his shrink visits.

Her father, of course, seemed to think that maybe her being friends with him might just help him finish breaking through whatever was wrong with him that required him to have therapy. But whenever Audrey asked why he felt that way, her father wouldn't answer her, of course. She tried to remind herself that there was a confidentiality agreement between doctor and patient, and that was why, but she got this feeling that her father sort of identified with Tate on some level.

Tate studied her with an amused smirk. He could tell she was irritated at the way he'd come into her room and move things at random, the way he kept popping up in her general vicinity, especially since the weird moment they'd had a while back where they'd caught glimpses of each other's inner workings when their hands brushed each other on accident. But the way he saw it, if he had to think about her, want to be around her nonstop lately, which sadly, he did, and it killed him, really, had he learned nothing from falling for Violet like that?

Yeah, she was going to get a little torment too, in the form of having to actually deal with him being around constantly. The upshot to this, however, was that Audrey didn't look as annoyed as she normally did when he showed up for no reason. She looked a little more tolerant, though she was still irritated that he was touching the stuff in her room. He wondered briefly if she were a little on the OCD side, but he chose not to comment.

Instead, he watched her sorting her laundry, pretended interest on the movie playing on a 20 inch television set that sat on top of a dresser near the closet's double doors. "What the hell is this anyway?"

"It's called The Notebook."

"So it's a girl movie?"

"No, actually, there are a few guys who watch this kind of stuff." Audrey said as she stopped folding clothes and sorting them, stared at him a moment and then said "Give me the remote. I'll find you something else to watch since its obvious you're making yourself at home now." as she took the remote he held out and scanned the channels, found another movie.

She flopped down onto the bed beside him and he asked through a mouth full of Oreo's, "How's school so far?"

"I fucking hate it. The girls are so annoying. How's your life going? I mean when I'm not here to poke around and try to piss off." Audrey joked as she took an Oreo and twisted the cookie apart, licking the filling out. Tate raised a brow then asked "You're not gonna eat the whole cookie?"

"In a minute." Audrey shrugged as he gave her a grossed out look but didn't comment. She had quirks, he knew that much for certain. "What's this movie?" he asked as she hit the guide button on the remote and then let him read the name. "Really? Do I fucking look like I want to watch Great Gatsby?"

"It's actually kinda good."

"It's a shitty novel. The movie's probably shittier." Tate explained as if he were stating a known fact than his own personal opinion. Audrey gaped at him and shook her head then said "Just because it's not a comic or something.. Doesn't make it shitty."

"It's boring, okay? We had to read it in English before I got thrown out of Westfield." he lied, only a partial lie, really, they had been reading it the week before he walked into the school and shot the place up then got himself killed by SWAT right here in this very room, in the very spot that Audrey's bed (or mattresses on the floor,rather) sat currently.

"Yeah, typical guy statement." Audrey argued right as the storm that had been brewing all day finally broke and she winced at the noisy thunder and bright streaks of lightning that lit up the sky outside of her window, jumping towards Tate's spot on her bed. "It's just a storm, damn."

"I hate storms, okay?"

"Typical girl statement." Tate joked as she flipped him off and moved abruptly away from him, her skin tingling all over from where their bodies had brushed. He was probably repulsed by her, she figured. He looked at her and said casually "Didn't have to move. I don't bite unless you ask me. Besides, it's just two friends watching tv.. Right? Relax."

She nodded and bit her lower lip as she thought to herself _'If only I weren't starting to like you, even a little.. If only you weren't always lurking, making yourself available, wanting to talk to me, wanting to know me.. Then maybe I could just agree and it'd all be good.. But see, therein lies the problem, Tate.. I don't want to want you. But I'm starting to.. And you'll never actually want me.. It's all about my cousin for you.' _but managed to say quietly and with her best convincing tight smile, "Yeah."

The lights flickered on and off and she groaned. Tate stood and lit a candle then said with a smirk "So.. How much exploring in this house have you really done? Because when I was little.. I used to hang out in here a lot.. Didn't have many friends." while holding out his hand to her. She raised a brow then said "Why try and explore this place? I mean what if we find a skeleton or something?"

"It's called loosening up, Audrey, damn it.. Now c'mon. I'm gonna show you the attic. There's a chessboard or something up there, maybe we can bring it down here and play a game. Since you're obviously going to not have power for a few hours." Tate insisted, finally making a pleading look. She grumbled but tentatively she took his hand and let him lead her out into the darkened hallway.

So they weren't enemies anymore.. But they weren't together, either.. And she was reluctant to call him a friend because she hardly knew anything other than what she'd caught glimpses of and what little he told her about himself.. So what then, were they?


End file.
